"Greetings, people of 2008 conversation. That is indeed me, Eric, with panty hose on head, to the right. The show was in 1990, just before I left town to live in Washington, DC for a year or so. Jeff Lee had left the band by that point. The guitarist…"

"My Baby Loves Crime, by the 2nd (3rd, 4th?) wave of the Gizmos is still one of my favorite songs of all time - true edgy pop sensibility with innocent, funny and curious lyrics. A true Dale Lawrence masterpiece."

Profile Information

What Instrument(s) Do You Play

Bass

About Me

Punk rock... it's the reason I can't hear anything today. Or remember anything. Bloomington... It's the reason for my delayed adulthood, and the start of my "career" as a school teacher a few years before mandatory retirement. But it was all worth it, because I got to sing "We're the Band that You Can't See" with a paper bag over my head to a crowd of confused and annoyed college students at Bullwinkles, when I was in high school.

What bands are you or have you been in?

The Panics, Visiting Food (!), The Landlord Tenant Relationship, The, The Cute Band, Gluttons For Punishment, Johnny ESAD and the Phlegm Masters, Johnny ESAD and the Musik Killers, Johnny ESAD and the Hard Cold Lumps of Cheese, Johnny ESAD and the Men Without Jobs.... and, of course, the Doo Dads.

Ever wish you could sit around with Eric Spears, smoking pot & listening to him pontificate about all sorts of crazy things? Now you can! (minus the pot and the sitting around with him) by visiting his blog: www.daisybrain.wordpress.com

Comment Wall (48 comments)

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Hum, you know after looking at your upload, it looks like a House of Ruins gig. I remember the 2nd and fess gig having a people all crowded on all sides of the band and dancing around like crazy people. Is there more than just the 12 minutes? Does the crowd finally take over the bandstand? I must have been tripping...

Hi Eric, lordy lordy, I don't believe it! The second and fess basement show. If I remember, total mayhem, pogo dancing like it was 1999. Some heat ducts got torn down. Man, I've been wanting to see that footage again for years. Can I believe my eyes? It still exists? Man, there are some old dear friends that were at that show. Please, bring me a copy.

Sorry for the delay, I don't really have any way of digitizing them. Though I may be able to have them done through the same channels I am working for the Cigs stuff. You were right, I do have a box of vhs tapes that I got from you and Barge. But they haven't been transferred either. Also, didn't you have some digital 8 (?) -- or whatever it is called -- footage too? I remember you getting a smaller better resolution camera at some point. Give me a call when you get back into town, 339-4576 and we can hash it out. I'm off that whole week so I'll be around in the daytime.

Thanks for the nice comment. I wish I could write like I used to but everything is just graphic art doldrums these days. I was talking with Barge the other night about trying to get you to transfer some of the best of the Walking Ruins videos that you have onto DVD-r (Windfall, Streetdance, etc.) Is this something that would be possible? I'm working on a Dancing Cigs DVD right now with a phenomenal 2 set performance of the band in it's prime around 1981. It was done by some students from the University and uses 3 cameras (though the cameras are not the best quality) Still, all in all, it is a great document of the band. Some of the tracks are up on You Tube now, check them out. Just search for Dancing Cigarettes. I've also been going through my old cassettes, lots of bands, lots of unreleased, lots of cassette only releases. I'm trying to get all of that digitized. When I get some cleaned up I'll send you a list. I have the original Gizmo's Story. I even found a demo cassette I did for a Cristy Paxton show theme I wrote and never finished.

New Hampshire......I ran around Nashua when I was in the Army. My favorite state motto, " Live free our Die". Married with children I suppose? At least some of us grew up. It just takes some of us a little longer. Thanks to the net I can now keep up with what everyones doing. Once again, it takes some of us a little longer to catch up. I took the short bus you know.......

yes...and you were the level headed...somewhat level headed one who kept all the crazies in check. I think during that
time I was working on somekind of sitcom idea. Porn store worker/ Pot grower character........hmmm.......who moved back in with his liberal mother and ultra-right wing father, in the age of Obama, oh....that's the one I'm working on now. I need to arrange a trip to B-town soon to see the old gang, Brewer, Barge, Terrill, ofcourse yourself. Sometime in October, fall season, when the leaves are changing.

At 10:55pm on August 12th, 2008, Craig Daniel Dalrymple said…
Well, Mr. Spears, now in order to be really cool, you're going to have to change your name to Eric Spears-Cyrus because MILEY CYRUS is THE FUTURE OF ROCK AND ROLL! You know Miley is going to phase out her Hannah Montana character, so be cool and ahead of the curve!

Britney may be too old to be cool for today's 2nd graders, but she obviously has plenty mental health problems and angst, even though you'd never know it from her idiotic fluff music or her airhead public statements. But when Britney shaved her head, got a tattoo, and went into rehab she suddenly looked like a messed up punk boiling over with angst.

I agree with you that after looking at those Bloomington party pictures it looks like we all had tons of fun even if we can't remember much of it! As for angst, the Panics had it and so did Yellow Rain but as a whole the Bloomington punk scene in the early 80s did have a Ramones good time party vibe with a sense of humor and that's what I liked about the Panics and Moto-X.

The Columbia, Missouri punk scene definitely had more angst and a dark, experimental edge to it than the Bloomington punk scene. You want angst? You want rage? You want insanity? Go to my Lurking Fear myspace profile at http://www.myspace.com/lurkingfears, and listen to "Dirge," "Werewolf," and "Hanging Out With The Dead." We also had song about suicide called "Last Time." I actually tried to inject more of a Cramps-style crazy, cartoon horror sense of humor into our monster music but the angst is still there. In other words, when you hear my vocals, I sound like I am totally insane! For more on this, send me an email message.

Turning back to to the more light-hearted, party time B-ton punk scene, I've got some rare photos for you that I scanned today: a 1983 picture of you in the Dalrymple family kitchen wearing a Ramones T-shirt with beer in hand while chatting with Jane Guskin. I have to admit that I had a crush on Jane. All right, I had the hots for her, OK?! Jane was just about the smartest and coolest punk rock girl I ever knew. I don't think she liked me very much but I liked her.

WELCOME TO NAME THAT BAND! The other photo at first appears to be a Panics reunion but I'm not sure what band you were playing in then since there's no John Barge and Mike Ost is there onstage but Andreas Cluver is on drums. The gig was the WQAX Meadow Dance in Dunn Meadow during the summer of 1982.

Enjoy the pictures! Cheers, Craig

"Let the stories be told, let them say what they want,
Let the photos be old, let them show what they want,
Let them leave you up in the air,
Let them brush your rock 'n' roll hair,
Let the good times roll..." the Cars

Vermont and New Hampshire sound beautiful and laid back. Maybe you could get a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor named after you, a blend of Vanilla and with chocolate chunks and chopped peanuts called "NUTTY PUNKY CHUNKYI"

I guess we all tend to mellow out to some extent as we get older. Although in my case, I'm even more high strung and wound up and stressed out than ever and I rarely ever feel relaxed. And I still have plenty of that punk anger inside me too, although I keep it under control (most of the time).